


Never Too Late

by Duck_Life



Category: Boy Meets World, Girl Meets World
Genre: Diners, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Fix-It, Fluff, Gen, Post-Canon, takes place a week after the gmw finale, turner is bi and has a husband
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 17:15:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15393555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Turner asks Shawn why they haven't seen each other in so long.





	Never Too Late

About a week after Topanga doesn’t take the job in London, Shawn meets Turner at a hole in the wall diner not far from the girls’ school. It kind of reminds him of the place where he first met Katy. “Order whatever you like,” Jon says, sliding the floppy laminated menu across the tabletop. “I’m paying.”

“No, no, I’ll get it,” Shawn insists, patting the pocket where his wallet rests. “I can start paying you back for that year of home-cooked meals.”

Jon rolls his eyes. “Yeah, right. You don’t gotta pay me back, Hunter. Taking care of you wasn’t, like, a  _ favor _ , you know.” 

Shawn scratches the back of his neck, not really sure what to say. “I’m still paying.”

“I might not be thirty anymore, but I think I’m still spry enough to grab the check before you,” Jon promises. The waitress arrives then to take their drink orders. When she leaves, Jon looks at Shawn thoughtfully. “I never knew the Matthews offered to adopt you.” 

He’d found out last week from Cory, on the day Cory and Topanga crammed so many old friends in their apartment they were probably breaking fire safety codes. “Yeah, well,” Shawn shrugs. “It happened at a really messed up time. I’d just found out my mom wasn’t my birthmom, and my birthmom didn’t want anything to do with me. And I, uh. I was drunk off my ass, too. It was a bad night.”

“Sounds like it,” he agrees. “You said no, though. Why? Alan and Amy are great parents.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Shawn says. “They’re great parents to four kids already. If they’d taken me in, then every minute they spent on me was taking away from their actual kids. And Cory and Eric were already grown up at the time, but I… I couldn’t do that to Morgan and Josh.”

“You know,” he says, folding his hands in front of him on the table, “when I found out Amy was having another baby, I asked Alan one night if he was worried about his other kids feeling neglected. Especially Morgan, she was, what, 12? And he told me that that’s not really what parenting is like. It’s not a finite amount of affection that you have to split up between your kids. He said when Eric was born, he loved that kid more than he thought possible. And then when they had Cory, all of that love just doubled. His heart just kept getting bigger.”

“That’s called—”

“Cardiomegaly, yeah, yeah, get some new material,” Jon scoffs. 

Shawn shrugs. “Still would’ve felt like I was taking away from someone,” he says. “I was sick of that. Still am. I just… I wanted to go out and earn something all mine, you know?” 

“Sure,” Jon says. “And you did. All that travel writing? It’s incredible.”

That surprises him. “You’ve seen the site?”

“Are you kidding me? I read everything you publish,” Jon says. “We all do, me and Eli and George. C’mon, Hunter, we all knew you were gonna be great.” 

Shawn’s saved from having to respond to that when the waitress returns to take their food orders and give them their drinks— Coke for Jon and a coffee for him. He stirs in two sugar packets and doesn’t look across the table.

Finally, Jon says, “So how come we haven’t been doing this more often?” Shawn sips his coffee and tries to look like he doesn’t know exactly what Jon’s talking about.

“Huh?”

“You don’t call, you don’t write,” Jon goes on. “I gotta check in with Matthews and Topanga to find out what you’ve been up to.”

“I’ve… been busy,” Shawn says, because it’s technically not a lie. 

“But not too busy to get into trouble with Matthews and Topanga, not too busy to adopt a kid, not too busy to  _ get married _ , for cryin’ out loud.” He sets his drink down with a little too much force. “You’ve been avoiding me. Why?”

Shawn frowns. “Because… I wasn’t done yet,” he says. “I wasn’t done growing up. I wasn’t done getting to… wherever I was going. And I kept thinking about Cory and Topanga, with their kids and their real jobs and I wasn’t…  _ there _ yet. I didn’t want to get back in touch with you just so you could realize I hadn’t  _ done anything _ yet. That I was still the same messed up kid from the trailer park.”

“Wha— Shawn, I just told you how proud I am of your writing,” Jon says, looking annoyed. 

“I write about shitty B&Bs,” Shawn says. “I’m not Kerouac. I’m not anybody.”

Jon presses the heels of his hands against his eyes like he’s warding off a migraine, and Shawn can tell he’s disappointed. It’s exactly why he avoided Jon for so long. But when Turner pulls his hands away, he doesn’t look disappointed— he looks mad. “I’ve been telling you for 20 years, you  _ are _ somebody. Alright? You’re Shawn Hunter. You thought I was gonna have a problem with you still being Shawn Hunter?” Shawn’s quiet. “I told you before, Shawn, you’re one of the most unique individuals I’ve ever known. And that shouldn’t ever change. Growing up isn’t ‘done’ when you get a nine-to-five job and two-point-five kids.”

“Then when’s it done?”

“It’s never done!” Jon says. “I’m still doing it. So are you, so are Matthews and Topanga. Hell, so is George Feeny.” 

“... Oh,” Shawn says, not really sure how to respond. He’s never seen it that way. He always felt like, if he couldn’t catch up to Cory and Topanga, he wasn’t going to be able to feel like an adult. But maybe that’s never been the case. 

“I will say I’m proud of what you’ve done so far,” Jon says. “And, you know what, more than that? I’m proud of who you are. That’s something else Alan Matthews told me about kids— you’re proud of them no matter what, just for being themselves.” 

Shawn doesn’t really know what to say to that either, so the two of them sit quietly until their food arrives. 

When they talk again, they talk about little stuff—  Maya’s latest art project, Jon’s husband Kyle’s never-ending crusade to remodel their bathroom. It’s not until Shawn’s fork scrapes against his plate of key lime pie that Jon brings up the heavy stuff again. 

“You know,” he says, “I never had any kids.”

Shawn blinks, confused. “I, um, I’m sorry—”

“No, no, not what I mean,” Jon says, waving a hand away. “Nah, teaching ’em was enough for me. I think George is the same way. What I’m sayin’ is, I don’t have kids. So if you still needed something… someone, to look out for you like that… you wouldn’t be taking me away from anyone.”

Shawn laughs. “Thanks, Jon, but I’m 35. I think I’m a little past being adopted.”

“You think so?” Jon says. “Wasn’t it just last week that Matthews had to drag both his parents here from Philly to ask their advice?” Well. He’s right. “I should’ve adopted you when you were 13, Shawn. I don’t think I can make that right. But I can be here for you now. When you need to talk, when you need advice. When Maya steals your motorcycle or gets escorted home by a cop? I can be there for you.” 

Shawn smiles. “What about when you get sick of me?”

“I got sick of you a long time ago,” Jon says. “But I’m not going anywhere.”

Jon ends up getting the bill. 


End file.
